When I purchased my airbook many years ago, I bought it with the credit card they offered since they had a good deal with it for students. I ended up paying it off very quickly and never used the credit card again since I no longer have an American bank account, which you need to pay American credit cards.

I know nothing about the Barclay card. The Apple Card has no fees, no interest rates if you pay on time, you get cash-back day-by-day on all purchases, security is high with Face ID and Touch ID, there is an app that shows your spending in an intuitive way, it has no card number, you can generate one-time security codes. A stolen Apple card can't be used for buying by anyone else.